


We Can Be Idiots Together

by elladiamond



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Fake AH Crew, GTA AU, Multi, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-17
Updated: 2015-03-21
Packaged: 2018-03-13 12:06:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 16,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3380903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elladiamond/pseuds/elladiamond
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Lindsay worries too much, Michael contemplates, and Ryan doesn't think at all. Between the three of them, they should be able to figure something out, right?</p><p>Meanwhile, the entirety of Los Santos seems to be out for the Fake AH Crew, and Lindsay thinks the timing of it all sucks.</p><p>Takes place after Lindsay's Heist.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Hearing about all the unexpected shit that went down during heists was one thing, but experiencing it first hand was an entirely different matter.

Everything had gone pretty well, all things considered. They somehow got the porta-potty onto the truck (and Lindsay would prefer not to linger on _exactly_ how long that took), they managed to stash all the gold in there without anyone dying (a major fucking accomplishment, if you asked her), and they even got the porta-potty onto the train (okay, that had almost gone to shit, but the quick recovery from that mishap nearly took her breath away).

But then everything fell apart at once, and Lindsay just couldn’t keep track of what was happening to who. She heard Michael’s voice crackle over the earpiece, frantic and distressed, and she barely managed to register the words “cops” before gunshots rang through the earpiece.

She felt a rush of cold fear wash through her, and she gripped the side of the train car tightly. Past the train smoke, she stared at the tunnel quickly fading from sight as if she could make Michael emerge from there safe from the cops. The only thing that kept her from jumping off the train was the fact that everyone depended on her to lead this mission. She had to trust that Michael was alright, that nothing else was _possible_ -

“Alright!” Ryan’s voice cut above the panicked clamor of everyone else, and the firm determination in his voice made Lindsay uneasy. “I’m going back for Michael!”

Before she could even turn around, she saw Ryan standing on the ground as the train zoomed by. The train was going fast enough that he seemed like a blur against the setting Los Santos sun, but she could tell that he was making his way down to the road across from the tracks to pick up a car.

The shouts from the crew began anew, everyone forgetting about codenames, and Lindsay breathed into her headset, a small sigh of gratitude. “Good.” And as Gavin angrily squawked in her ear at Ryan, she added, “He’s a good teammate.”

She didn’t have to think twice about her words. If there was anyone she trusted to help Michael, it was Ryan. She had no idea what compelled Ryan to jump off the train, but she trusted his judgment enough to back him up, and if it was for Michael’s sake, then all the better.

However, her words were drowned out by Michael’s, and once she registered them she felt a strange mixture of relief and horror wash through her.

“I’m on the tracks! I’m on the tracks!”

The others quickly caught on, and they started breathing sighs of relief. Lindsay felt herself slouch slightly, but her head was buzzing and she couldn’t shake it off. She didn't hear Ryan's voice over the headset, and her mind spun from how quickly his smart thinking transformed into a really fucking dumb decision.

“He’s fine, he’s fine,” she shouted into the earpiece. Telling herself that as much as trying to get the point across to Ryan. There was no need to abandon the train.

She made the wrong call.

And she couldn’t concentrate as Gavin started panicking about being trapped by the porta-potty and somehow he fell off the train and Ryan couldn’t make the jump back onto the train and everything was falling apart and she couldn’t do anything about it. Half the team (including her _goddamn husband_ ) was still stuck out there, and she was supposed to bring back everyone safely. This time was supposed to be different. They were so close, and now everything was falling to shit. She could only trust the others as Michael drove them back to the train, and she hated the feeling of not being able to do anything to help out. She tried to lead, and now everyone was scrambling while she couldn’t do a goddamn thing other than cheer them on through the earpiece.

Yup, she fucked up.

As she saw Michael’s stolen police car pull up ahead of the train, she held her breath, waiting for all three of them jump back on the train. Maybe everything would still work out. Even after everything fell to shit, maybe somehow everything would turn out fine for her first heist.

Michael, Gavin, and Ryan all dashed alongside the train, but Ryan was the closest and Lindsay watched as he made a mad scramble for the car ahead of her. She felt her heart jump in time with Ryan’s own jump off the ground, and for one second he was suspended in the air. For some reason Lindsay was reminded of the animal he chose to represent during the heist, a puma caught off-guard with its limbs scrambling, throwing its entire body weight into its swing as it tried to complete the jump.

However, even before Ryan began descending Lindsay could tell that he wasn’t going to make it. He started to curse wildly as he fell, and she ran back to the side of the car and leaned over. She wished she could reach out and pull him up, but he was too low. She couldn’t even look at his face because of the mask, and she could only watch in horror his body tumbled next to the train. It was almost comical, the way he hit against the porta-potty against the edge of the car. He was flung to the side and Lindsay refused to think that the movement reminded her of a ragdoll because that would mean there was nothing left in that body. She heard a loud pop in her earpiece, and she felt some bile in her throat as Ryan’s body quickly disappeared into the darkness.

It took a moment too long for the concerned cries of the others to get her attention.

Michael’s shouts reached her first. “No! Did we lose him?!” There was a desperation in his voice and that drowned out any relief she would have felt from hearing that he was okay.

“The porta-potty got him!” And she knew she sounded slightly hysterical but if she focused on anything other than the facts she might break down and that was the last thing that the crew needed.

When Geoff started frantically shouting for Gavin, Lindsay felt as if the world dropped from beneath her feet. Gavin was on the goddamn train at one point, he was almost safe. How the fuck did she lose him too? She barely paid attention to the frenzied shouts of the others until one voice cut in clear above the rest.

“I’m not sorry, fucking Ryan jumped off the train like an idiot!” It was only from years of working with Ray that she knew his cold words were barely hiding the hurt and anger that he felt.

Still, it hit her deep. She told Ryan that she approved of his actions. As the leader of this heist, what happened to Ryan and Gavin fell on her shoulders. She knew that if Ryan had stuck with them, things might have ended up differently with Gavin as well, instead of a chaotic dash to secure half of their team. Now, Ryan and Gavin were lying on the side of the railroad while they escaped into the countryside with no plans to return for at least a week.

Lindsay was so deep in thought that she didn’t notice how the others joined her on the car with the porta-potty until Michael ran up and hugged her tightly, mask in one hand.

“Nice job, Jones,” he mumbled into her hair, not caring that he was still wearing his earpiece and the others could hear.

“I’m glad you’re safe,” she replied. She knew the words sounded stilted and corny, but it was the only thing that came to mind because it was the goddamn truth.

They broke apart, and there was a moment of silence as everyone tried to figure out what to say. Then, Geoff broke out into a wide grin.

“We did it! Holy shit, we actually pulled this off!” Lindsay was caught off guard by the way Geoff pumped his fists in the air, and Ray started hollering and shooting into the sky. They threw their masks into the air. Even Michael danced where he stood, and the stress on his face quickly gave way to genuine happiness.

“Wha- I don’t get- what?” Lindsay stammered out, pulling off her mask in frustration.

Michael stopped his celebrating when he saw her face. “Listen Lindsay, take a deep breath and calm the fuck down.”

Lindsay did as he asked, but it still didn’t clear away the confusion and anxiety rattling around in her head.

“Alright, I know this was your first official heist, but you need some fucking perspective here. Our first heist, no one got out. _No one_.”

“But I thought Ryan shot Geoff in the back on that one-“

“Yeah but it wasn’t lethal and Ryan did his dumb viking funeral thing anyway and that’s not the fucking point.” Michael ran a hand through his hair in frustration. “We all should have fucking died on that one, but we got lucky.”

“But what about the rest of them?” Lindsay asked. “Are you telling me that every single fucking time you get lucky?”

“Fuck no! We got _smart_. We learned how to bail, and even if it was from a goddamn exploding cargo bob tank, we knew how to make it out with our fucking lives. And for every time we fuck up our heists, we still make it out. Gavin and Ryan are fine.” Michael clenched his jaw. “They gotta be.”

“Michael…” Lindsay looked down, hands curled into fists. “You didn’t see the way Ryan hit the train-” She was stopped by a firm hand placed on her shoulder, and she quickly turned around.

“Lindsay.” Geoff looked her square in the eye. Lindsay rarely saw such a serious look in his eyes, and that’s what kept her frozen before him. “This is honestly the best I think a heist has ever worked out. I mean, other than Michael’s.” He looked over her shoulder for a second to glare at Michael. “But I’m not going to count that for obvious reasons. We got the gold, we’re on our way out of the country, and even Michael was able to escape all the fuzz on his tail. Ryan and Gavin-” and Lindsay couldn’t keep in her wince, “No, listen- if they act like idiots that’s not on you. They… they should have known better.”

Geoff’s grip on her shoulder grew tighter, and Lindsay spoke up, “But Geoff-“

“ _No buts_. Believe me when I say we’ve come out of much worse with our lives. No goddamn train is gonna kill off those two, even if they were trying really hard to make it happen today.”

Lindsay swallowed and looked down. All she could think about was how she saw Ryan tumble into the night, how people have died in car accidents with cars moving much slower than a fucking train. How she hadn’t even realized Gavin was missing until Geoff started asking about him.

And she knew that even if she told Geoff how she encouraged Ryan, Geoff would still probably shake it off like it wasn’t a big deal.

“We were just so _close_ ,” Lindsay said. She looked back up at Geoff, only to see that his gaze had soften.

“You more than proved yourself today. The main goal has always been the gold. Everyone here knows the dangers of what they’re getting into when they do these heists, yourself included. So for us to actually pull off the heist this time is something that you should fucking celebrate in my books.”

Lindsay scowled but said nothing. Geoff sighed and pat her on the back.

“After a few more heists, you’ll get what I’m saying. Now stop being so goddamn mopey and let’s dig the gold out of that shit.” Geoff grimaced before walking over to Ray and pulling him towards the porta-potty, despite Ray’s protests.

Michael stayed by her side even as Geoff and Ray started opening the door to the porta-potty, and he crossed his arms across his chest. “Jesus Christ, Lindsay, please stop fucking sulking. I even added ‘please’ for your fucking benefit! Best husband right here.”

Lindsay stuck her tongue out at him, but what happened still weighed heavily on her mind. She sighed, knowing that she had to get this off her chest.

“Michael… Ryan jumped off the train to get you. I heard him say that.”

Michael shifted on his feet. “Yeah… I know,” he muttered, not even looking at Lindsay.

Lindsay took a deep breath. “I okay’d his actions. I don’t know if anyone else heard, hell, I don’t even know if he heard, but I was fine with him deviating from the plan. Even though I made the goddamn heist. If anyone’s getting the blame it should be me.”

At that, Michael paused and stared at Lindsay. It wasn’t his typical glare, something that she knew very well how to deal with. It was more contemplative, and she felt almost thankful that he wasn’t dismissing her words like she knew Geoff would have. There was a long pause, and Lindsay could only focus on the silence between them instead of the train rattling beneath them or Geoff and Ray cursing near the porta-potty.

Finally, he threw his hands up in the air in defeat. “I mean, he did jump off the train before you said anything. That’s all him right fucking there. If you get off by thinking that every single problem is your fault then I’m not going to fucking stop you. But,” he paused, making sure that Lindsay was looking at him, “this was definitely the best heist we’ve ever pulled off. Everyone thinks you did a goddamn great job. And…” he rolled his eyes, a faint blush spreading across his cheeks, “I think you did a goddamn great job too. So. You know.”

At that, Lindsay couldn’t help but smile, and she moved forward to lightly punch Michael’s shoulder. “Aw, love you too, asshole.” The nagging sense of guilt still lingered in the back of her mind, but she trusted Michael’s words and tried to focus on what she pulled off.

Which, now that she thought about it, was pretty fucking awesome. Shit falling through the sky? Birds had nothing on her.

Michael gripped his shoulder and groaned to exaggerate his pain. “You’re the worst goddamn wife ever.” He glared at her, but she could still see the relief peeking out past his poorly faked frown. Before things could get sappier though, he pushed against her and pulled a stiletto off her foot as she toppled onto the floor.

“Hey guys! I got something to shovel the shit out with!”

Lindsay watched in a daze as Michael ran off towards the other men, and she smiled. She would worry about Ryan and Gavin later (because Michael and Geoff were right, they _must_ be alive) and focus on the good that happened. And she was pretty sure that two million dollars in shitty gold counted as fucking _sweet_.

But it was funny, Lindsay mused as she limped on one shoe over to the others. In the end, she hadn’t expected that it would be the goddamn _porta-potty_ that took out a third of her team.

\---

Before the heist, Lindsay was looking forward to Canada’s party scene, but as it turned out, there wasn’t much of a party scene when she was stuck in a small log cabin miles in the middle of goddamn nowhere.

Still, she was pretty optimistic at first. Even though Geoff had only one spare bed that Lindsay, Michael, and Ray would have to alternate using, at least Geoff stocked up the place with enough alcohol and drugs to hold a party for half the country’s population. The first couple of days there, Lindsay repeatedly asked Geoff why he stashed so much in the log cabin, but Geoff always pushed away her questions with a roll of his eyes. However, during the third night, Lindsay stumbled across a huge pile of canned foods underneath a bookshelf (drunk wrestling with Michael in such a small space was _not_ a good idea). Her current theory was that Geoff made the log cabin into a safe house in case a zombie apocalypse ever occurred.

Still, even with all the booze and drugs she could want, the log cabin was only so big, and after a week Lindsay started to feel anxious about sitting around and waiting. The adrenaline of the heist had long since left her, and she felt an itch under her skin urging her to do something reckless, just to get the rush. She wished they didn’t waste all their fireworks on the train, but now the only thing they had that created loud booms was Ray’s rocket launcher, and she knew better than to bother him about it.

The guys were just as restless at that point, which was proving to be a problem. Even though Geoff had an Xbox, there was only so many times that the group could play together before cursing each other out, especially since Ray pretty much dominated in every game. At one point, Michael threatened to walk out and shoot some Mounties or whatever the fuck they had up in Canada just so he didn’t have to lose against Ray anymore. Lindsay was more than ready to join him, but Geoff put his foot down and said no more multiplayer games until they got back to Los Santos. He even made a schedule for who could play singleplayer when, just so they wouldn’t ruin the final steps to finishing the heist by not keeping patient for two goddamn weeks.

By the middle of the second week, everyone had moved to their own areas to sulk, waiting for their turn with the Xbox. Sometimes when Lindsay and Michael were both free, they walked around aimlessly until the chill of the winter weather got to them. They didn’t talk about much, but Michael’s hand firmly grasping hers helped to keep her grounded. It reminded her that they were working towards something better, and she needed to wait it out.

Once, they also tried to have sex outdoors, far away from where everyone could bother them, but as it turned out dirt wasn’t so comfortable. At least Lindsay learned something new from the experience.

The rest of the time, Lindsay sat on a couch with a can of beer in one hand and a book in the other. Geoff was apparently a huge fucking nerd who only liked boring books though, so her attempts at reading often ended with her eyes glazed over as she looked at the same sentence over and over again.

It was at times like these that her thoughts drifted back to the heist.

After some reflection, Lindsay decided that she would count the heist as a success. Like the others insisted, everything pretty much went according to plan. It was just during the getaway phase that people fucked up. If she got another shot at a heist, she would spend some more time improving on the getaway and getting people to actually follow the goddamn plan.

When then led Lindsay to think about why people strayed from the plan.

No one seemed to know what happened to Gavin, and Lindsay spent some time thinking about how to watch out for whatever got him. However, after hours of stressing about it she realized that she was overcomplicating the whole thing.

It didn't really matter what got Gavin because he attracted any type of trouble, no matter the situation. Michael centered his heist on protecting Gavin, and that was the only time Gavin managed to survive unscathed. Gavin was quite possibly the only person in the world who would need someone to plan out his safety during heists.

Really, Lindsay was almost surprised with how easy that was once she stopped worrying about specifics. One problem down.

The other problem was not so simple, though.

\---

Lindsay brought it up to Michael one day during their walks.

“Hey Michael, I’ve been thinking.”

“Don’t fucking hurt yourself there.”

Lindsay shoved him with her shoulder. “That insult was bad and you know it.”

Michael rolled his eyes. “Just get to the fucking point. Jesus Christ.”

“Well…” She absentmindedly rubbed her thumb over his knuckles. “You know the heist, right?”

“Yeah, it wasn’t like I was _there_ or anything. Come on, Lindsay, what’s up? If you’re gonna say you failed that heist or some shit like that again, I’m gonna noogie you so hard until you give in.”

“Hey, stop the bullying!” Lindsay moved to avoid Michael’s free hand, but he still managed to catch the back of her head with the noogie.

“No, start the bullying!” Michael grinned.

“Fine. I will accept any and all bullying, but only do it if you can follow through on the worst bully war you will ever experience. And now you’re distracting me from my point! So this is all pretty much your fault.”

“Shut up,” he said. “Just tell me what you wanna say."

“It has to do with Ryan. I’m just trying to figure out why he did what he did?” Her last statement came out as a question more than she intended, and Michael raised an eyebrow at her.

“Why he jumped out of the train? Wasn’t it to get me? We both heard him.” Lindsay could feel Michael’s hand twitching slightly in hers, and she didn’t know what to make of that.

“Yeah, but why?” she pressed. “It’s weird, and I’m trying to figure this shit out so it doesn’t happen again.”

Michael stopped walking, and Lindsay followed his lead. He turned away, looking at the sun starting to set on the horizon. “It is weird,” he said carefully, and that raised alarms in Lindsay’s head more than anything, because Michael Jones was not _careful_ when he talked.

“Do you know something?” Lindsay glared at the back of his head, willing him to turn around.

“Nah. I mean, this is the first time he did this, you know?” Michael didn’t look at her, but he gripped Lindsay’s hand tighter and traced the edge of her wedding band lightly with a finger. Lindsay's skin tingled from where his finger ghosted against her skin.

“Maybe he’s trying to be a better team player?” she suggested. “It means that he has to learn how to be a _good_ team player, but his heart is definitely in the right place.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Michael still didn’t turn around, and Lindsay stood with him as they watched the sunset together. Lindsay liked how the light made the wisps of curls peeking out from his beanie stand out brightly. As the sun finally disappeared, he turned around. Lindsay could barely see his expression, but she recognized it as the one from the night of the heist, speculative and suspiciously closed off.

“I…”

“I…?” Lindsay prompted.

“I… think you should talk to Ray. He always does that self-sacrificing shit.” Michael shivered and looked down as he said that, and Lindsay could tell that he chickened out of what he really wanted to say.

“Alright…” When Michael said nothing else, she groaned. “Fine. Don’t tell me your deepest, darkest secrets. But I _will_ get them out of you soon!” With that, Lindsay started dragging Michael back to the cabin before he could respond. He spluttered in indignation, and Lindsay smiled slightly despite her frustration.

Well, it wasn’t often that Michael got shy about what he wanted to say, so she was okay with letting it go for now.

\---

That night, Lindsay dreamed about Ryan.

During the heist, Ryan’s body whipped by so quickly that Lindsay had no chance at catching it. This time, he was gripping onto the train, barely holding on by one hand. The train moved faster and faster until the entire world was a blur to Lindsay except for Ryan, and she saw his eyes widen in fear through the cat mask.

She tried reaching out for the hand still gripping onto the train but all of her limbs refused to move and she could only watch as Ryan struggled.

“Ryan!” she called out desperately. “Pull yourself up!”

She couldn’t see his face, but from the way his eyes relaxed she could tell that he was starting to smile. “It’s okay Lindsay. Michael’s safe.”

With that, he let go, and Lindsay woke up gasping and tangled in sheets.

“Lindsay, shut the fuck up,” Ray muttered tiredly from the floor. “I don’t want to hear you getting off up there.”

“Bet it’s the most action you’ll ever hear,” Lindsay muttered as she curled up on her side and wondered what the fuck that was.

\---

The next morning Geoff had everyone gather for breakfast, even though everyone typically ate on their own. Ray usually didn’t even wake up until after twelve, which meant that Geoff and Michael had to drag him over.

As everyone slowly surrounded Geoff at the table, Lindsay rolled her shoulders, trying to shake off her exhaustion. The dream from last night lingered in the back of her mind, but she pushed it away for the moment so she wouldn’t get distracted.

“What the fuck needs to be done now that can’t be done at lunch?” Ray slurred, his eyes still half drooped. Lindsay worried that he might fall asleep right where he sat and fall face first onto the table.

“Well, as leader I just thought you assholes might want to have a nice meal altogether,” Geoff shrugged, a twinkle in his eyes.

“Fuck off, Geoff,” Michael yawned. “Just tell us what’s up.”

“Well… I might have been walking around last night, and I might have seen something in the sky.” That got everyone’s attention. Even Ray straightened a bit in his chair. “I thought, ‘Well gosh, isn’t that unusual?’ I walked over and saw the strangest thing: a package tumbling to the ground! I figured that no one else would be there to pick it up, so…” With that, Geoff pulled out a small package from under the table.

“Holy shit,” Michael breathed.

“Is that…?” Lindsay leaned forward towards the package.

“Let’s find out, shall we?” Geoff pulled out a pocketknife and deftly sliced the tape across the top. He slowly opened the flaps, and everyone crowded around to see what was inside.

Contrary to the medium size of the box, inside was a single postcard featuring tropical scenery and a gaudy message: _“Wish you were here!”_ Geoff flipped the card over, and on the back Lindsay could recognize Jack’s handwriting.

_“Hey assholes! Fuck you for leaving me this mess to deal with!”_

“That motherfucker,” Geoff muttered fondly. “Thought the box was too light.”

“Getting really mixed messages here,” Ray said, but he was smiling the entire time.

“Does that mean we can leave?” Lindsay practically jumped up and down at the thought.

“Calm down, there,” Geoff shook his head in playful admonishment. “Gotta clean up camp first. But we’ll leave first thing tomorrow.”

Michael whooped in joy, grabbing Lindsay and spinning her around. Lindsay squealed, and clung to Michael so he didn’t drop her. “Finally! We get to leave this fucking shithole!”

“Hey!” Geoff frowned. “This place isn’t so bad.”

“Tell that to the doctor’s bills I’m gonna send you for all the back pain your fucking couch and floor caused me.” Lindsay couldn’t see Michael’s face, but she felt the way it shifted to show his anger. However, from his firm grip on her, she knew that he was happy above all else. Too soon, he slowed down and let her put her feet back on the floor.

Lindsay was a bit dizzy but she still couldn’t stop grinning.

“Really?” Ray scoffed, rolling his eyes at them. “With all our money from the heist you give a fuck about doctor’s bills?”

“Oh yeah, we gotta smuggle the gold back into the city,” Lindsay said. “Seems kinda stupid, considering all the effort that went into getting it out of the city.”

“It’s still ours,” Geoff shrugged. “We’re just moving it to a place where it’s actually worth something.”

“It’s about fucking time.” Michael said, and everyone nodded in agreement.

From there, Geoff assigned everyone packing duties. He specifically told everyone to check that the gold was in the car before they left, since if all four of them forgot to pack the gold before they left, then they deserved to have it taken from them. Michael doubted that, since who would even be dumb enough to come to the middle of fucking nowhere? They both bickered about it until Geoff finally dragged Michael away to show him every single beautiful detail of the cabin.

Lindsay and Ray both sighed in relief, the only ones in the now quiet kitchen. Lindsay thought that she should do something to get rid of her lingering sleepiness, so she got up to make some coffee. As she turned on the coffee maker, she saw Ray pull out a box of cereal from the pantry from the corner of her eye.

With just the two of them around, she suddenly remembered her conversation with Michael and how he mentioned asking Ray. She also thought about the fact that Jack’s postcard said nothing about Ryan and Gavin. She shifted uneasily on her feet, and the anxiety from her dream last night hit her again.

Fuck it. She was going to get answers for what she could, since for better or worse she would find out what happened tomorrow.

“Yo, I’ve got a question for you,” Lindsay asked as he took his first bite of cereal.

“I may or may not have an answer,” Ray said, his mouth full of half-chewed food. Lindsay scrunched her face since he didn’t even bother to swallow before talking.

“Why do you think Ryan jumped off the train?” Lindsay didn’t want to beat around the bush.

Ray paused, his second spoonful of cereal hovering in the air. He slowly put the spoon down, and frowned deeply. “Don’t know, don’t care.”

“But you’re the one who always does that self-sacrificing bullshit,” she pressed, placing her palms on the table and leaning towards him.

“Okay, first off, I don’t do that anymore. Geoff and everyone got on my case about it, and most of the time, everyone gets done in anyway. So what’s the fucking point?” Ray practically pouted at that last part. Lindsay felt a pang of pity for him, since his good intentions were proved worthless pretty much every time.

“And second off…?”

“Second off…” Ray looked down, glaring at his bowl. “I’m always there when shit starts going down. I don’t fucking go back when I’m safe and _have the fucking goods_.”

That made Lindsay’s head spin. Ryan willingly put himself back in danger for Michael. And, she suddenly remembered, not to mention how he split off from Ray…

“Um… are you okay?” Lindsay asked, the words feeling awkward on her tongue. “I remember how you told Ryan not to abandon you during the heist…”

“I don’t need a fucking hug, if that’s what you’re asking. He stuck with me until the train. After that, he could have run naked straight into the Los Santos police department for all I care.” He stood up abruptly, grabbed his bowl of cereal, and headed straight for the TV. “Now, if you excuse me, I have some gaming to do. If Geoff asks, yes, I’m totally procrastinating.”

Lindsay watched sadly as he walked away. She wondered if Ryan knew if Ray was going to react like this, and the urge to talk to Ryan nearly took her breath away.

_Please be alright._

\---

After packing the few things Lindsay brought with her, she ended up pacing the entirety of the cabin four times until Michael finally yelled at her to go outside before she drove all of them crazy. Lindsay gave him a few choice curse words, and left with a slam of the door. The itch to do something was back because her brain felt like it was going at sixty miles per hour and her body needed to catch up. She cast a glance at the van they used to drive here. No one would mind if she went for a night on the town before they left, right?

She sighed and walked away from both the car and the cabin. The last thing she wanted was to risk everything on a reckless impulse. Even if it would be totally awesome. Instead, she walked forward for a couple of minutes before sitting cross-legged, her back to the cabin. It wasn’t like she could get some alone time from the others when everything was flat around here, and she didn’t give a fuck about looking cool while she sulked.

To clear her head, she began to look at the sky and watch the clouds drift by. She was grateful that the sky wasn’t as empty as the ground, since it actually gave her something to look at. She tried to come up with a story behind what the clouds looked like, something about an elephant and a dress, and she was reminded of the times she used to do this when she was a kid. Sitting cross-legged and looking for something that wasn’t there. The idea made her snort.

“Didn’t realize I’d need to babysit you.” Lindsay flinched, and then scowled as Geoff plopped down next to her.

“Don’t you know I’m a kid at heart?”

Geoff said, “I could say that about all of you, but that’s not a good thing.” He then dangled a can of beer in front of her face. “But kiddies don’t get this, you know.”

“Aw Geoff, come on,” Lindsay pouted. She reached for the can, but Geoff pulled it away.

“Nope, not until we have a mature adult conversation about why you’re huffing and puffing and threatening to blow my lovely little log cabin in.”

“I never did that…” Lindsay said as she turned to get a proper look at Geoff. He was raising a skeptical eyebrow at her, and he was still holding the can far away from her.

“Yeah?”

“Well I don’t think pacing really counts as that.” Lindsay looked away and started pulling at some grass to distract herself.

“Well, here’s how I see it. We could get this straightened out here and then not worry about it when we get back, or you could let it fester and have it flare up when we really need you during a heist.”

Lindsay’s eyes widened. “You want me back for another heist?”

“Uh, yeah? I didn’t realize there was some doubt there.”

“Well, it’s nice to hear it said out loud.” Lindsay couldn’t quite keep the relief out of her voice.

Geoff pat her on the shoulder. “I’d be a fucking idiot if I didn’t have you on the crew again. I mean, not that you aren’t a member of the crew. You are. Just in case that wasn’t clear either.”

“Nah, I got that.” Lindsay shifted so she was looked at him straight on, and she hoped her smile told him how much she appreciated his words.

“And… as your boss, I order you to tell me what the fuck’s going on. Go on, employee.”

Lindsay laughed, “I’m pretty sure a good boss wouldn’t bribe their employees with beer.”

Geoff shrugged. “Never said I was a good boss.”

“Touché.” With that, Lindsay wondered where she wanted to start, and decided to go straight to the thought that had been plaguing her the past two weeks. “What… what if Ryan and Gavin aren’t there when we come back?”

“Oh, it’s going to be _that_ type of conversation,” Geoff groaned, before offering the beer in his hand to Lindsay and grabbing another one out of his coat pocket. “Sounds adult enough for this.”

Lindsay took the drink gratefully, and immediately opened it. Both she and Geoff took a long gulp at the same time, and then grinned at each other.

“I’m guessing what I told you back then wasn’t good enough,” Geoff started.

“It’s just… not even about me and what I did, though. What if they’re _gone_?”

“They’re not.” Geoff said firmly. “Jack would have let me know somehow. But he sent a fucking _postcard_. He’s not gonna do that with heavy shit going on.”

“What if Jack thinks they’re hiding out here with us, though?”

“Hmm…” he mumbled into his drink. “Didn’t think of that.”

“What the fuck, Geoff,” Lindsay said, glaring at him. “You are the worst at comforting.”

“Never said I was trying to do that, Lindsay. But in this business, shit like this happens, even if you don’t want it too. So my philosophy is to not worry about it until it actually happens. You don’t waste time worrying about what ifs that way.”

Lindsay finished off her beer as she considered Geoff’s words. It seemed like the past two weeks she had done nothing but worry, and that didn’t make anything better. But at the same time… she liked knowing. Knowing that she could make dumb jokes with Gavin whenever she wanted. Knowing that she could talk to Ryan about whatever’s on her mind and that he would listen.

And that she could try to find out what was on Ryan’s mind, too.

Looking down at her empty beer can, she asked, “Geoff, why do you think Ryan jumped off the train?”

“Hell if I know,” Geoff shrugged, standing up and throwing his empty can far into the distance. “He’s never done that before. I could say that he’s a creepy motherfucker who’s also a dumbass, but I don’t think you’ll be happy with that. I guess if you’re really wondering about that, just ask him when we get back.”

The fact that not even Geoff had seen Ryan act like that unnerved Lindsay even more than her talk with Ray. However, she was sick of feeling uneasy about everything. She decided to take Geoff’s words to heart and wait until tomorrow. An actual goal was easy to work with.

She stood up alongside Geoff and hooked her arm into his elbow. “Alright. Wanna get drunk and make Michael drive us home tomorrow?”

Geoff grinned. “What a fantastic idea!”

\---

Lindsay was barely conscious the next morning when she woke, only recognizing the agonizing headache she had. She felt something pull at her arm, and it took a few moments of awkward stumbling before she realized that Michael was dragging her to the van. Somehow, Geoff and Ray were already there, and they both looked as miserable as she felt.

Michael looked equally annoyed at all three of them. “You all are fucking assholes.”

“Guess you fit right in,” Ray groaned, rubbing his eyes.

“You’re especially an asshole!” Michael pointed an accusing finger at Ray. “At least they have an excuse! You’re just a lazy piece of shit who likes sleeping in!”

“Just mad that I can’t drive…” Ray mumbled, head nodding forward slightly.

“Oh fuck no, we’ve got one more thing to do before you go off dreaming again.” Michael pushed all three of them to the back of the car. He opened the trunk and pointed to the bags piled up. “Look at it! Confirm that all our fucking gold is traveling with us. I might be going fucking _blind from rage_ so I want someone to fucking double check this shit!”

Lindsay, Geoff, and Ray leaned forward at the same time. The gold glittered from the rising sun, and everyone immediately winced.

“The light! It burns!” Geoff screamed for added effect.

“Fucking great. Let’s go.”

Everyone piled into the van, but seatbelts proved to be a challenge for everyone. After Ray fumbled with his seatbelt in the back for nearly a minute it gave a satisfying click. Ray passed out on the spot after that.

“Hate you guys. So much.” Michael kept muttering under his breath as Lindsay and Geoff continued trying to buckle their seatbelts in the middle of the car. As soon as he heard two clicks, he threw his hands up in the air in relief and nearly rushed into the driver’s seat.

Lindsay thought it was funny how fast Michael turned on the car and started putting distance between them and the house. When Michael stopped and parked the car, she thought it was even funnier that he wanted to give the house one last farewell. He hopped outside and pulled something from underneath his seat.

It wasn’t until she recognized the pink of Ray’s rocket launcher that she realized what he was going to do.

“Michael, no!” Geoff wailed, trying to get out of his seat without removing the seatbelt, looking almost like a toddler.

“Michael, YES!” he screamed in glee as he pressed the trigger. Lindsay watched in fascination as the rocket sailed through the air and landed directly on the roof of the house. The loud boom that rattled the air when it collided made her wince and cradle her head.

“But… the zombies…” Geoff mumbled sadly.

“Yeeessssss.” Despite how her head was still throbbing, Lindsay pumped her hands into the air. “Knew it.” Geoff shot her an angry look.

Michael jumped back into the car. “You can get a ton more of those babies when we cash in the gold. Hell, I’ll buy you one myself. Now let’s get the fuck outta here.”

For the entire morning, the car was unusually quiet after that loud finale to their trip. The majority of the crew slept in the back while Michael hummed softly under his breath to the radio. Lindsay nodded on and off throughout the morning, and her headache slowly subsided.

Once she could finally open her eyes without feeling like her head was going to explode, she looked to her side and saw Geoff and Ray knocked out in their seats. Not wanting to disturb them, she kept quiet and looked out the window as they sped down the highway. She didn’t recognize any of the scenery, but she didn’t remember anything about the drive there. Really, she didn't remember anything from that night other than the heist itself and the adrenaline that lingered afterwards.

“Hey, guess ‘beauty sleep’ doesn’t mean shit after all,” She looked up to see Michael glaring at her through the rearview mirror.

“Yeah, yeah, guess I deserve that,” Lindsay yawned and sat up in her seat. “Anything else you wanna get out of your system?”

Michael paused, and he turned his attention back to the road. “Sorry about yelling yesterday.”

Lindsay frowned. “Wait, why are you saying sorry? I was acting pretty shitty. And drinking so much last night didn’t help. Sorry for doing that to you.”

“Well… yeah you’re a fucking asshole for that. Guess we’re even on apologies then.” There was a brief pause. “Do you want to sit up front with me?”

“No one called shotgun, so duh.”

Before Michael could pull over to the side of the road, Lindsay unbuckled her seatbelt and climbed over the passenger’s seat to sit next to Michael.

“Whoa! Watch it!”

“You’re good.” After getting herself situated and buckled in, Lindsay grinned at Michael. “See? Awesome. Stunt doubles wish they could pull off that shit.”

“You’re fucking weird,” Michael smiled affectionately. He took one hand off the wheel and reached for Lindsay. She laced her fingers with his, and they held hands as he drove. It was a nice silence between the two of them, and Lindsay couldn’t help but glance at Michael with a small smile on her face.

“What the fuck, this is just gross.” Both Michael and Lindsay jumped in their seats, and Lindsay looked into the rearview mirror to see a very unimpressed Ray staring back. “No seriously, you guys bickering all the time, that’s fun. Doing this hand holding thing for who knows how long is just dumb mushy bullshit romance.”

Lindsay rolled her eyes. “Well Ray, we are married.”

“Please don’t start acting like it now.” Ray started climbing over to get to the seat Lindsay had left, and Geoff mumbled slightly in his seat.

“Come on Ray, you can be rude to us but Geoff’s still sleeping like a baby there,” Michael complained.

“Eh, he’ll still be mad at you anyway for trashing his house. By the way, I don’t even care that it woke me up. It was fucking sweet.”

“Well,” Lindsay said, “you went back to sleep anyway.”

“That is also true.” As Ray buckled himself in, Lindsay thought about the last time she talked to him and sighed.

“Listen,” she began, “sorry about yesterday. I wasn’t trying to hit a nerve.”

Michael’s eyes flicked between Lindsay and Ray with interest. Ray shrugged and leaned back in his seat.

“It’s fine. I probably just need to beat him up a little before I feel better.” Ray looked out the window as he said this. To Lindsay, he seemed more sad than angry now.

“If he lets you.” Lindsay snickered.

“Yeah what am I thinking? I’ll probably break my arm like a twig before he even moves.”

"Who, Ryan?" Both Lindsay and Ray quickly turned their heads to Michael.

"Ugh, don't you get in on this, too," Ray groaned. "For once, I'm not in the mood to be double teamed."

“Sorry dude, I told her to ask you. Didn’t realize you have Ryan issues.” Michael laughed, but his shoulders seemed to tense slightly.

“Pretty sure Lindsay has the biggest Ryan issues right now,” Ray said.

“Um… _what_?” Lindsay did _not_ splutter because she was completely cool and calm and prepared to talk about this in a rational manner. “I just want to understand why he jumped off the train. Is that so bad?”

“It’s not bad, Lindsay,” Michael said, and what caught Lindsay off guard was that he sounded completely genuine. There was no biting sarcasm or doubt in his tone. “Do what you gotta do to figure all this out.”

“Figure all this out…?” Lindsay echoed, but Michael said nothing else. She looked at Ray for some help, but Ray shrugged, just as clueless as her.

When the fuck did Michael start being so cryptic?

“Uuuuuugh…” Geoff moaned from his seat, and everyone’s attention turned to him as he rubbed his head in pain. “Are we there yet?”

“We are _not_ fucking doing this.” Everyone started laughing, but Lindsay kept sneaking looks at Michael, wondering what he meant. It wasn’t just him being insecure, like she first thought. Something was definitely up with him, and he wasn’t sharing.

Lindsay sighed, realizing that she was back to figuring two problems out.

\---

When Michael finally pulled up to the crew’s hideout, the sun had long since set and everyone nearly cried in relief as they stepped out of the car.

“I never want to see you assholes again,” Geoff wailed.

“Same,” Ray agreed.

“Can we just cancel our Sunday drives?” Lindsay asked Michael.

“Well let’s see if those assholes are fine with that.” Michael nodded their head towards the door of the hideout, and Lindsay nearly froze. After all this time she wasn’t sure she was ready to find out whether or not Ryan and Gavin would actually be in there.

“Holy fucking shit, you’re freezing up now? Jesus Christ.” Geoff strode past the two of them and slammed the door open. “Hey! Where the fuck’s the welcoming party?”

“Glad to see you’re back, you sure left me a lot of cleanup to do.” Lindsay peeked inside the door to see Jack standing in front of Geoff, looking like he wanted to both strangle and hug the man.

“Well that won’t matter once you’ve seen the little presents we brought back from vacation,” Geoff grinned as he stepped past Jack. “Now, where are those dumbasses?”

Everyone pushed their way inside as Jack shook his head and looked past them. “Ha! I knew it! You lying assholes weren’t ordered to stay here!”

Everyone rushed in the direction of Jack’s stare. As soon as Lindsay pushed her way past the waiting room and into the dingy light of the rec room, she immediately noticed knives flying through the air and into a dartboard painted into the wall. She followed the arc of the knives and found herself staring at the familiar skull mask of one Ryan Haywood. He stood in the corner of the room next to Gavin, who was looking at the wall in awe.

The two turned around towards the commotion, and before they could say anything Geoff coughed loudly.

“You two realize you’re not getting a cut from the heist, right?”


	2. Chapter 2

“So I’d _like_ to get straight to the celebrating,” Geoff began, steepling his fingers together on the table, “but we’ve got to do some self-reflection thanks to the two idiots in the corner there.” Gavin squawked in protest and Ryan waved, unperturbed by everyone’s stare.

Lindsay found that she had a hard time looking away.

After seeing Ryan and Gavin alive and well in the lounge, Geoff immediately called for a crew meeting. Before she knew it, the entire crew was sitting around a table in a soundproof room that Geoff often used for these meetings, away from the bar up front and any potential eavesdroppers. Gavin complained the entire walk over about Geoff’s threat of not paying him, but Geoff’s glare was enough to shut him up with an audible gulp.

Ryan, on the other hand, seemed calm and almost _chipper_ , a slight bounce in his step as they walked into the room. He stood behind the chairs as everyone took a seat, and Lindsay chose a spot where it wouldn’t be awkward to look at Ryan if she swiveled her chair just right. Michael pushed past her and chose a seat directly in front of Ryan and next to Gavin. When Ryan wasn’t looking, he glared at Lindsay and then glanced up towards the person above him, making his message obvious.

Lindsay knew that she needed to talk to Ryan, and Michael deserved her putting an end to this. However, she found that her brain refused to supply her with anything useful to say, even after those two weeks of thinking. Pretty fucking pathetic, really. She probably should have written all this down or something.

She shrugged at Michael and he scowled. However, before he could start a proper fight with her about it, Geoff started grilling Gavin and Ryan. Lindsay shifted so that she completely faced Geoff, knowing that Michael would be glaring at her this entire meeting now. Oh well. She still had time to deal with it.

Geoff started his interrogation with Gavin, who immediately got defensive.

“So you’re telling me that you glitched out of the train and then tripped when you tried to get back on,” Geoff said, his shoulders shaking. Lindsay couldn’t tell if it was because he was shaking with laughter or if he was resisting the urge to strangle Gavin.

“No!” Gavin waved his arms in front of him, as if that somehow helped to show his point. “It’s like something glitched _through_ the train and it bumped me off! How in the bloody hell am I supposed to deal with that?”

“Gavin,” Geoff sighed. “In all the years that I’ve known you, you’ve said some goddamn stupid things. And this isn’t even close to topping that list. But what’s worse is that I know you actually believe this. Just know that in the end, I’m chalking this up to you being a complete fucking idiot.”

“But Geoff-”

“But _nothing_! Remember that stupidity policy we said we would enact for heists? That means no cut for you. Period.”

“Ah, but you didn’t put that in writing, did you Geoffrey?” Gavin’s smug tone made Lindsay slump in her chair. She could tell this would be a long argument that would go nowhere quickly.

As Geoff’s and Gavin’s voices got louder and louder, Lindsay glanced back over at Michael, resisting the urge to move her eyes up to look at Ryan. She figured if she just focused on Michael alone then it would be okay. Michael quickly noticed and scowled at her. Making sure that Geoff was still too busy with his argument to care, Lindsay stuck her tongue out at Michael for a second and then smirked. Michael rolled his eyes and then narrowed his eyes, not in anger but in concentration.

Lindsay’s smirk widened. She recognized a staring contest when she saw one. There was no way she was going to back down, so she squared her shoulders and locked gazes with Michael. Before long, only two things existed to her: Michael’s stare and the knowledge that she needed to win above all else. After several moments of motionless eye contact, Michael flicked his eyes upwards. Without thinking, Lindsay did the same and locked gazes with Ryan.

Who was apparently staring at her this entire time.

Ryan didn’t seem to mind what Lindsay had been doing, as the skin around his eyes was crinkled with amusement, his eyes narrowed in a familiar way that meant he was trying to hold in a laugh. It was the first time Lindsay really made eye contact with him since the heist, and she flushed as she remembered the circumstances that led to this moment. She glanced back down to glare at Michael, that fucker. He must have planned that. However, Michael was facing away, appearing to pay close attention to Geoff as he argued against Gavin’s usual logic.

Goddamnit her husband was such an asshole.

Lindsay felt Ryan still staring at her, so she mustered up all her courage to look back up from her traitorous husband. When their eyes met again, she offered a sheepish smile, trying to apologize for the awkwardness without words. Ryan shrugged, and shook his head. Lindsay took that to mean it was no problem. She wasn’t an expert at reading Ryan with his mask, but she liked to think that she was getting better at it.

There was a pause in their pseudo conversation, and Lindsay realized that Ryan was waiting for something from her. She tilted her head to the side, waiting for Ryan to give her some hint as to what she missed. His eyes narrowed more and more in frustration as several more minutes passed, and Lindsay propped her face on her hand as she waited for him to make some sense.

Reflecting her own action, Ryan’s hand reached up to his face, and he jumped slightly when his fingers touched his mask. Through the mask, his eyes were wide with confusion and slight embarrassment. Lindsay snorted as she realized Ryan forgot he was wearing his mask at the moment.

That dork. Man, she really missed him. Maybe she wouldn't kill Michael for setting her up, after all.

Feeling satisfied with the fact that she at least interacted with Ryan, she shifted her body so that it fully faced Geoff again. Geoff finally seemed to be coming to some sort of agreement with Gavin.

“Fine, here’s how it’s gonna go: you’ll get your share eventually. But _only_ when you can survive a heist with us to the end.”

“But Geoff! That’s not fair! Why am I getting punished for the world hating me?” Gavin’s pout was something to be reckoned with, and Lindsay was feeling a bit more sympathy for him.

However, Geoff was not fazed. “Because maybe this will help motivate you to figure out how to not get your ass handed to you every single time we do something! And I’ll still give you a bit of your share now, so it’s not like I’m being completely unfair here. Just think of it like being grounded or something.”

Gavin’s collapsed face first on the table, and his voice came out muffled. “That makes it even worse!”

“Tough shit, kid. That’s what’s gonna happen, and you’re gonna deal with it.” Then, Geoff shifted in his chair so he was facing Ryan. Michael moved his chair slightly so that he could look up at Ryan if he wanted to. Lindsay took a deep breath, knowing that she needed to pay close attention to this conversation.

“Please don’t tell me you’re gonna ground me too, Geoff,” Ryan said, squaring his shoulders in preparation for his questioning.

“Depends on what your answers are here, Ryan.” Geoff leaned back in his chair, twirling his moustache as he thought. “I guess we should get the basic employee care stuff out of the way. How the fuck is every single bone in your body not broken right now?”

“The train wasn’t moving _that_ fast. The worst that I was hit with was a damn porta-potty.” Ryan sounded like he was grimacing at that last part.

“From what I hear, you were like a ragdoll there, buddy.” Lindsay winced as Geoff brought up her own account; Ryan probably knew the description was from her since she was the only one close enough to see him properly when he hit the porta-potty.

“Yeeeeeah… I may have been knocked unconscious by it. Caleb said I had a concussion, but other than some painful bruises on my body that was the worst of it.”

“That… is almost as stupid as Gavin’s story, but at least this sounds like it can actually take place in our reality.”

Gavin let out an annoyed grumble at that.

“On the other hand, _holy shit you were beaten by a fucking toilet_ ,” Geoff started cracking up in his seat. “That is this funniest fucking thing I’ve ever heard!”

“Yeah, laugh about it now,” Ryan grumbled as everyone but him giggled from the way Geoff was losing it. “Just wait until I start cashing in on some of the threats I’ve made to you in the past.”

“Nah, I just needed a good laugh in my system.” Geoff wiped his eyes as his laughter died. “Because now we get to the serious issue of why you ended up in that situation to begin with.”

Everyone tensed, and even Ryan seemed on edge from the question he knew was coming. Lindsay held her breath, and she watched as Michael kept completely still in his chair.

“Why the fuck did you jump off the train?”

“I did it because I heard Michael was in trouble.” Ryan spoke casually, but to Lindsay it seemed like the words were rehearsed.

Michael opened his mouth as he tried to say something, but Geoff held up a hand to silence him. “Yeah, but you know how our heists usually go. Someone gets got, and we still move ahead. And this time we even _had the fucking gold_. We were almost in the clear there. So why did you go after him, Ryan?”

“Dunno. Seemed like a good idea at the time.” Ryan shrugged, as if the questions didn’t mean much to him.

“No, everything we’ve ever done during a heist has taught us that what you did was the opposite of a good idea. Now you tell us the actual reason you went after him, or you’re going to be fine with us thinking that you are turning into a fucking moron. And believe me, you don’t want the Gavin treatment.”

“Yeah, you kinda don’t,” Gavin added, although he looked very happy at the prospect of Ryan being lowered to his level.

Everyone seemed to lean closer to Ryan as they waited for his answer. Everyone except for Michael, who stared stubbornly at the table in front of him.

Lindsay wasn’t sure what she wanted to hear.

Finally, Ryan said, “Well, I weighed the pros and cons of jumping off the train and decided it was better to go for it. Obviously my calculations were a bit off, but I’ll work on that.”

There was a moment of complete silence as everyone absorbed what Ryan said.

Finally, Geoff broke the silence with a screech. “That’s not a goddamn answer! That’s probably the vaguest fucking thing I’ve ever heard!”

“Well, that’s all there is to say, Geoff.” There was a tone of finality in Ryan’s words, and Lindsay half wanted to shout at him that he was obviously fucking lying. Still, she knew that she needed to leave this to Geoff. Otherwise, the whole meeting would dissolve into fighting that would get nowhere.

Geoff glared at Ryan. “Goddamnit Ryan, if that’s how you want it to be, then fine! To start, you better believe you’re not getting a cent of that gold when we cash it in.”

Lindsay winced. That was a bit harsh, considering how much gold they ended up stealing. She hoped that it would be enough to make Ryan crack.

However, Ryan seemed to anticipate this move, as he tilted his head to the side in mock confusion. “Alright… but that’s not much of a punishment right now.”

“What the fuck does that mean?” Everyone turned to Ray in surprise, since this was the first time he chose to talk the entire meeting. He didn’t look happy that he was talking at all, and his eyes were narrowed at Ryan in suspicion and distrust.

“Weeeeell…” Ryan drawled, swaying back and forth on his feet. “It’s not like you were planning to get all that money at once, right?”

“Huh?” Geoff blinked rapidly, thoroughly bewildered at this turn of events. Lindsay couldn’t help but feel that this was Ryan’s plan all along, especially with the way his shoulders relaxed slightly as Geoff looked helplessly at Jack.

Jack was very unimpressed. “Geoff,” he stated slowly, raising an eyebrow at his crew leader. “You do realize that we _can’t_ actually cash in all the gold right now, right?”

Lindsay jumped up in her seat at Jack’s words. Now _that_ was news to her. To her right, Gavin and Ray had a similar reaction. However, she was most alarmed by how Geoff straightened in surprise.

“WHAT? Why the fuck not?!” Geoff screeched, not even bothering to conceal his shock or panic. He had completely forgotten about Ryan, who was now leaning against the back wall, watching everyone. Lindsay was torn between paying attention to him and paying attention to the conversation.

Yup, that bastard definitely planned this out. He was probably grinning behind his mask.

Jack replied, “Well, for one, it’s a lot of gold and I’m pretty sure that no one’s just give us cash for all that out of the blue.”

“But we’ve got sources, right?” Geoff asked hopefully.

“And two,” Michael spoke up, “it’s pretty fucking suspicious if the amount of gold that went missing suddenly turns up. There’s no fucking way we’re not gonna get busted for that. Really, Geoff? You didn’t think about this?”

Lindsay didn’t know what to make of the fact that Michael was obviously directing the conversation even further away from Ryan. Wasn’t he the one who said she should just get her answers as soon as she got back? She tried to catch his attention, but Michael refused to look at her, instead looking straight at Geoff.

“Well… I…” Geoff stammered, obviously at a loss. Everyone stared at him, waiting for him to work through his thoughts. Lindsay didn’t dare talk, not sure whether to bring up Ryan or her own disappointment at the news. Finally, to everyone’s surprise, Geoff started whining. “But I want that money nooooooooooow…”

Alright. This was definitely the bigger issue right now.

Everyone exploded at Geoff. Between Ray’s simmering anger, Gavin’s obnoxious questions, and Lindsay’s own frustration, Geoff slowly rolled away from the table in his chair. Jack shook his head in disappointment.

Ryan’s reaction was hidden under his mask, but from the way his shoulders shook it seemed like he was laughing. Lindsay flipped him off, not wanting to let him off the hook, but Ryan waved back cheerfully. If he was trying to start another silent conversation with her, she was having none of it.

In front of Ryan, Michael impatiently tapped his hand, and Lindsay flipped him off for good measure too. He definitely didn’t help things. He frowned at Lindsay and mouthed something to her.

She wasn’t the best at reading lips but she was pretty sure he said “ _later_ ”.

She sighed and waved at him to continue whatever he was trying to do. Obviously he had some plan, and she had no better ideas at the moment.

Behind him, Ryan tilted his head to the side again, but his confusion seemed genuine this time. Lindsay stifled a giggle as she realized that he couldn’t really see what Michael was doing. Served that asshole right. Hoping to make him nervous, she winked at him, and the way he shifted slightly on his feet definitely made her feel better.

Suddenly, Michael stood up and slammed his hands against the table, startling everyone into silence. “Christ, you’re all acting like fucking babies here!” Michael shouted as everyone turned towards him. “Why the fuck did you think anything else would happen? How the fuck did you think this would go down?”

The others muttered quietly until Geoff said, “Um… I thought we could just sell it all and get the cash...”

Ray groaned, “Fuck, we’ve never actually made it this far to know what to do with the goods!”

“Never stolen gold, either,” Gavin added.

Michael pinched his nose in frustration. “Okay, fucking great! Less than half of us have thought about this. No, we don’t get all the money. But we can still cash a bit of it without too much of a hassle, right? And that’s more than enough for us for now. Would that be enough to stop everyone’s whining for tonight?”

“I guess…” Geoff grumbled, twirling his mustache in an attempt to rebuild the image of their dignified crew leader. It wasn’t really working.

“Yeah, that’s fine. Thank god...” Jack breathed out a sigh of relief, slumping in his chair.

“Fine, whatever! This past month has been a fucking nightmare and I need at least something for it,” Ray said, kicking the leg of the table impatiently. “Can I go now?”

“Hang on, we’ve got to do a little meeting wrap up.” Geoff scowled at Gavin, who was trying to slump down in his chair and out of everyone’s sight. “Don’t think that by getting quiet I’ve forgotten about you. You’ll get the same share as everyone else for now, but that’s it. No more until you do something about… you.”

“C’mon Geoff! That isn’t fair!” Gavin whined.

“Be thankful that you’re getting anything at all. As for you Ryan…”

“Yes, Geoff?” Ryan’s innocent tone made Geoff’s eye twitch, and Geoff took a deep breath before continuing.

“Listen Ryan, it’s obvious you want to be Ryan the Secret Guy about whatever this is. And I’ve known when to stop asking questions in the past, but that’s not enough sometimes. So you’re not getting anything until you feel like coming clean about this.”

Ryan nodded his head once, “That’s fair.” His tone made it quite clear that he was fine with not getting any money at all. Lindsay scowled, feeling that despite all this, Ryan still got the outcome he wanted.

At least Michael would help her find out whatever was going on.

Geoff sighed. “Glad we reached a compromised here. Alright everyone, I don’t want to see any of your faces for the next couple of days so we’ll meet up again… Monday, I guess? Ugh, never mind, I fucking hate Mondays. Tuesday, then! See you dickholes later.”

Everyone seemed to rush out of the room, but no one was faster than Ryan. Lindsay realized that the reason he chose to stand was to escape through the door as quickly as possible, and that made her even more annoyed at him. Everyone seemed pretty unhappy in general, and Lindsay even heard Ray mutter “what a fucking asshole” under his breath as he passed by her. Only Michael stayed behind, slowly pushing in his chair as he waited for Lindsay.

“Okay, why the fuck did you push the topic away from Ryan?” Lindsay asked as she stood up, glaring at Michael the entire time.

“Listen, there was no fucking way he was going to share what was up, at least like that. If you’re going to get your answers, we need to corner him when he’s not so prepared.”

Even though Michael’s words made sense, Lindsay still couldn’t shake away her frustration. “Well that’s what we’re gonna have to do now, so it doesn’t really matter what I think about it, huh?”

“Come on, Lindsay, it wasn’t like that!” He leaned over and gave her a reassuring hug. Even though she wanted to stay angry, she couldn’t help but calm down from the way his arms held her firmly to him. “We need a chance to think about how we’re going to do this right.”

“Right? Is there a right way to find out why someone is being a fucking secretive asshole?”

Michael’s hold on Lindsay tightened. “Well, I don’t think this was the right way. Can you trust me on that?”

“...Yeah.” Lindsay hesitantly wrapped her arms around Michael, and they stood like that for a while. Even if Lindsay was still a bit pissed off at Michael, she knew she could trust him above all else. Finally, she pulled away and looked at him straight in the eye. “Why do you care so much about doing this the right way, anyway?”

“...I want to know what was up with him too. I mean, he risked his life to help me. You don’t just forget that.”

Lindsay felt as if a weight was lifted off her chest from hearing those words. It was the support that she didn’t realize she wanted so badly. Michael didn’t say much, but what he said was enough for her to know that he needed to find out what happened with Ryan just as much as she did. Even if she didn’t know all of what Michael though, it made her feel better to know that she was not alone in this, at least.

Lindsay reached out for Michael’s hand and grasped onto it tightly. It was the best way she could show her appreciation and support since she couldn’t find the words to express it. Michael returned the gesture with a shy smile, and after all the chaos of returning that night it felt nice to have a heartfelt moment between just the two of them.

Finally, Lindsay broke the comfortable silence with something that bothered her that night. “So, what was up with getting me to look at Ryan? Is that part of your ‘right way’ strategy?”

“Kinda? I mean, you still need to be comfortable talking to the guy if you want to convince to tell you anything...” Michael’s uneasy smile hinted at a more complicated explanation, but Lindsay waved him off.

“Alright, just explain it to me later, then.” She pulled her hand away from Michael’s and playfully bopped him on the nose. “Come on, I want to sleep on our king sized bed and hopefully sleep in for the next week.”

“Hell yes!” Michael grinned, and they left the room together.

\---

Lindsay was never going to take her bed for granted again.

After two days of sleeping in with Michael, eating all the take out they could ever want, and catching up on all their favorite shows, Lindsay felt like she was ready to take on the world in style again. Waking up and stretching out her limbs on the most comfortable mattress ever had to be the best damn feeling in the world.

However, when she reached over to her side, she frowned as she realized that the most important part to having the best day ever was missing.

“Goddamn asshole, leaving the bed all cold…” she grumbled as she rolled out of bed and put on a pair of slippers. She shuffled out to the kitchen, where she saw a pot of coffee already made and a sticky note on the fridge. She rubbed her eyes and took the note, holding it close to get a better look.

_Going out with Gavin. Will get new phones probably. Get out of the house today you lazy fuck._

Rude. At least they would be getting the new phones that Geoff insisted everyone get after a heist. Well... if Michael and Gavin didn’t forget while they were out having fun. Lindsay reflected on all the times Michael said he would pick up something with Gavin when they went out.

Yeah, maybe it was better to pick up the phones herself.

Not in a rush, Lindsay ate her breakfast and put on a casual dress before leaving the apartment. As she walked towards the crew’s hangout, she passed some boutiques and she had the urge to stop and admire all the awesome new outfits that came in over the past couple of weeks. Maybe when she was getting the phones, she could ask for a bit of the gold money that they said they would cash in. It was about time she had some tangible reward for all her hard work, after all.

The plan motivated Lindsay, and when she arrived at the hangout she slammed open the door and headed straight for the lounge.

“Hey losers! I’m here and I want my money!” she exclaimed with a little flourish of her hands. Even if she looked like a dork doing it, it didn’t matter because she felt awesome.

“Hey Lindsay,” Jack waved from behind the bar counter, browsing on his laptop.

Lindsay sat on a nearby barstool. “Isn’t it a little early for drinking, Jack?”

“Well, not if you ask Geoff,” Jack chuckled. “Good thing I don’t really do Geoff drinking. Anyway, I’m just going through some contacts to see what we can do about our earnings. Not that we can do anything right now, but I want a plan for when the heat dies down a bit more.”

“Any luck?” Lindsay leaned over the counter to get a better look at the laptop, but Jack pulled it away with a frown.

“Hey, no screen looking!” Jack complained before setting it down in the corner away from her.

“Sorry Jack,” Lindsay apologized with a sheepish smile. “Channeling my inner Caleb there.”

Jack grumbled under his breath while he ducked under the bar. There were some shuffling sounds and a loud click, and Jack came back up with a medium-sized cardboard box.

“Alright, let’s see what’s in here…” Jack rummaged through the box until he pulled out a phone and an envelope with Lindsay’s name on it. He passed both to Lindsay on the counter, and she eagerly picked them up. “Now there’s not much gold we can cash in right now, but what we can get will tide us over. You even got a leader bonus in there, Lindsay.”

“Sweet!” After checking the phone had all her contact information, Lindsay quickly peeked inside the envelope and yep that definitely required a shopping spree to celebrate. “Hey, have Michael and Gavin been by yet?”

“Don’t think so, let me check…” Jack shuffled the contents of the box. “Hmm, let’s see. Ryan, nope… Gavin… Michael… yup, their stuff is still here.”

“Can I take Michael’s phone then? He’s out with Gavin and he might forget to come by.”

“Oh, if it’s him and Gavin then he definitely will forget.” Jack shook his head as he passed Lindsay a second phone. “Tell him to come by if he wants his money, though.”

“Got’cha.” Lindsay was about to stand up to leave, but suddenly a question occurred to her. “Hey Jack, you were here for the last two weeks, right?”

“Yup,” Jack said while moving the box back into its hiding spot under the counter.

“What were Ryan and Gavin like when you saw them?”

Jack frowned. “Those assholes fucking lied and acted like everything was normal! They came right in and said that the heist plans changed and they had to stay behind. If I had known, I would have at least told you that they were here when I sent that note.” He gave an apologetic look to Lindsay.

However, she waved it off. “Hey, you didn’t know, so don’t worry about it. And if Michael comes by, tell him I have his phone.”

“Got it. See you tomorrow!” Jack waved cheerfully as Lindsay hopped off the barstool and walked out of the lounge.

Lindsay took her time leaving, thinking about Jack’s words. Nothing was different with Ryan over the past two weeks, so he probably intended to hide whatever his problem was around everyone. She could try asking him about it directly, but Michael’s words from the other night came back to her. They needed to get Ryan when he least expected it if they were ever going to learn anything.

Lindsay sighed. This was going to be more complicated than she thought. Then again, Ryan always liked to make things complicated.

Well, she didn’t need to worry about that today. Her mission to uncover Ryan’s mysterious behavior started tomorrow, and for now she wanted to enjoy her hard-earned money with all the awesome clothes she wanted.

However, as soon as she rounded the first street corner leading away from the hangout, the familiar rev of an engine stopped her in her tracks.

Lindsay quickly ducked behind a parked minivan as a sleek black car raced down the road and skidded to a stop right in front of the hangout. She peeked out and okay yeah that was definitely Ryan. He wasn’t wearing his usual mask today, but a red sock that was too tall to pass off as a legitimate balaclava. Lindsay suppressed a giggle as she remembered that this was how he handled casual wear.

He glanced around quickly before ducking into the building. Lindsay wondered why he was nervous about running into anyone if he chose to come here today, but then she remembered that Jack said Ryan’s name while searching for Gavin’s and Michael’s stuff in the box.

Ryan needed to pick up his phone. Damn, this could be a golden opportunity.

However, Michael’s voice popped up in her head again.

_We need a chance to think about how we’re going to do this right._

Well, it wasn’t like she needed to grill him about what happened during the heist right then. She could just talk with him like she normally did and see what happens. Besides, she missed hanging out with him. She didn’t need a reason to talk to her friend. She could probably keep her mission and her social life separate. Probably.

Running from her hiding spot, Lindsay positioned herself against the wall next to the entrance so that she could peek into the hall. Waiting for Ryan to walk into the waiting room, she hoped that Ryan wouldn’t take too long talking to Jack.

Luckily, she was right in guessing that Ryan wanted to avoid as much contact with everyone as possible. Before long, he was walking down the hall, phone in hand. Even better, he was distracted with his phone, and Lindsay smirked as she positioned herself directly in the middle of the entrance, hands on her hips.

Ryan didn’t even look up from his phone once, and he walked right into her. Even though Lindsay knew this would happen, she still almost fell down from how Ryan nearly collapsed on her.

Ryan fumbled with his phone. “Oh sorry, didn’t see you there…” He looked at the obstacle in his path, and as soon as he recognized who it was, he immediately began stammering, “Uh, I, uh. Well, hi?”

“Come on, Ryan!” Lindsay was grateful that she decided to wear heels today, since it gave her a tiny bit more leverage as she stared Ryan down despite their height difference. “It’s only me!”

“Okay, hi Lindsay.” Ryan’s voice squeaked at the end, and Lindsay nearly snorted. Yeah, this whole thing was totally worth it just to see him get nervous.

Lindsay got straight to the point so Ryan wouldn’t have the chance to worm his way out of this one. “Are you busy today?”

“Well… I’ve got… a thing… I don’t really want to talk about it...” Ryan muttered pathetically, looking anywhere but her. Lindsay hoped that Ryan knew she wasn’t falling for his excuse for a second.

“Hey, I was thinking that we could go shopping, just the two of us! Haven’t had a good shopping spree just for fun in a while.”

“I don’t know, I’m not really dressed for it.” Ryan pointed to the red sock on his head. However, looking past the holes cut into the sock Lindsay could see that he skipped the makeup today, the one major obstacle to this whole plan. She held back a sigh of relief and pressed harder.

“You can go without the sock for one day, Rye-bread!” Lindsay was using all the tricks she knew here, even the nickname, and from the way Ryan’s shoulders began to slump she could tell that she was almost there.

“Listen, I know you want to talk, but I’m not gonna say anything you didn’t already know…”

“Who said anything about that? I just want to go shopping with the best shopping buddy anyone could ask for!”

“I dunno…” However, Ryan looked more hopeful now that he realized Lindsay wasn’t there to grill him.

Time for the secret weapon.

“Come on, Ryan! You could even film it and make into a shopping montage...” Lindsay grabbed Ryan’s phone and dangled it in front of him enticingly. From the way Ryan’s eyes widened in excitement, Lindsay knew she had him.

“Really? You don’t mind?”

“Well, as long as I look awesome in, it’s fine.” She did a silly pose, and he laughed before snatching back his phone.

“Let’s go then.” Ryan yanked off the sock on his head and grinned fondly at Lindsay, not even looking the slightest bit annoyed that Lindsay dragged him into this. Between seeing his eyes unobstructed by a mask, and seeing how his smile made his entire face look handsome and warm, Lindsay took a second to bask in the moment. It wasn’t often that he took off his mask without his makeup, and Lindsay wanted to enjoy it for all its worth.

“Alright,” Lindsay said, and if anyone accused her of being slightly dazed, she didn’t know if she would be able to defend herself.

Ryan smirked, and hearing his smug tone was so much better when she could see the smirk as well. “Oh, and I’m pretty sure you look awesome in anything, so be prepared for a lot of filming today.” With that, he turned around to unlock the car, leaving Lindsay _definitely_ dazed behind him.

Okay, what the fuck.

As Lindsay hopped into the passenger’s seat, she felt a sudden appreciation for Ryan wearing his mask most of the time. Otherwise, it was going to be hard to figure him out if he kept distracting her like that.

It was a quick drive to their favorite shops in Ryan’s car, and before long they were posing in front of mirrors, taping themselves as they tried on the most extravagant outfits Los Santos had to offer. Everyone in the store was glaring at them as they laughed loud enough for the entire block to hear, but Lindsay couldn’t care less. She was having an amazing time with her friend and she was going to enjoy it for all it was worth.

\---

“Wait,” Michael began, “You were out with _Ryan_ today?”

“Yeah?” Lindsay placed her many bags of clothes on the floor before rubbing the soreness out of her shoulders. “Why, is that a problem? Does your secret master plan involve me not hanging out with my friend?”

“Um… no, I just thought that it would be awkward, like he wouldn’t want to talk to you when it was just the two of you or something.”

“Hey! I’ll have you know that my company is highly desirable, thank you very much.”

“Well, yeah, I guess. I married your sorry ass after all.” Michael ducked the shoe that Lindsay threw at him.

After throwing her other shoe at him, Lindsay said, “It wasn’t really awkward after I got him to come with me. I’m pretty sure the main reason he gave in is that I said I wouldn’t talk about the heist. But we had fun today, so that’s good.”

“Huh.” Michael stood still, looking very perplexed at Lindsay’s story, and Lindsay wished she had another shoe to throw at him.

“Hey, asshole! I’m allowed to have friends you know!” she growled.

“No!” Michael waved his hands to stop Lindsay’s train of thought. “I thought for _sure_ he would try avoiding us. This is kinda throwing me for a loop here.”

“Oh, he was definitely trying to avoid us. I had to corner him before he agreed to spend time with me. Plus I had to agree to a shopping montage.”

“I- what?” Michael choked on whatever he was about to say and threw his hands up in frustration. “ _Goddamnit_ Lindsay I’m going to look at the front page of YouTube tomorrow and see you and Ryan making dumb faces at mirrors, aren’t I?” However, Michael looked more amused than annoyed at the prospect.

“That was the plan! Make sure to leave a comment about Ryan’s artistic skills or whatever,” Lindsay giggled, thinking about how Ryan liked to use the most clichéd graphics possible for his videos.

“Like, comment, subscribe!” Michael laughed along with her, no doubt remembering all the times Ryan said that to the crew after he uploaded a video. Ryan was oddly proud of those videos. “Haha oh man, we should watch some of those videos again.”

“Already on it!” Lindsay pulled up Ryan’s channel on her phone, and for the next half hour she and Michael laughed at all of the shopping montages Ryan forced the crew to do over the years.

“Man, this is all the way back from our first heist! Ryan didn’t even have his montage thing going on! We didn’t even really have disguises! He just videotaped us out of nowhere and I don’t even know why!” Michael wiped a tear from eye, laughing too much from the poorly shot video of the crew as they talked near a store.

“Oh come on, you know why. Ryan the Creepy Guy!” Lindsay paused the video to let Michael catch his breath. “But really, wouldn’t these videos get you in trouble or something?”

Michael shrugged. “Eh, who gives a fuck? It’s just us out shopping and it’s not like the cops don’t know who we are.”

“Well, if Ryan’s fine with posting this shit I guess it doesn’t hurt the crew.” Lindsay paused. “Even if right now Ryan isn’t really acting with the crew in mind.”

“Yeah.”

The sobering thought left them silent, and Lindsay wondered about what they should do about Ryan now.

“You know,” Lindsay started, lightly shoving Michael’s shoulder, “you never did tell me what your grand plan was.”

Michael shrugged. “It’s actually kinda pointless now since Ryan’s actually fine with hanging out, at least with you. I just thought we should bother him at every possible minute and butter him up with things he likes to do until he spilled his guts. Y’know, we’re nice to you so you want to tell us your deep, dark secrets. That, or he’ll get so annoyed with us that he’ll tell us what’s up just so we’ll shut up and go away.”

“...Really? That was the plan? Bombard him with friendship?” Lindsay hoped that her glare showed how she was less than impressed with his plan.

Michael waved his hands frantically. “Ryan’s a total dork! It was a good idea! And besides, I’m pretty sure that’s actually the best approach for this.”

“Huh, why? I’m not complaining, but it seems like the threatening method could work here too.” Lindsay wasn’t too keen on that option, though.

“Come on, Ryan’s a dork but he’s also a stone cold motherfucker who knows how to deal with threats. Part of why I didn’t want to press him the other night. And…” Michael hesitated, and goddamnit Lindsay was not going to lose him to that quiet thing he like to do whenever it came to discussing this situation.

“Michael, if this is gonna work, we’re gonna have to be on the same page here. Please.” Lindsay held her breath, hoping beyond anything that Michael would share what was on his mind. There was a tense pause as they stared each other down, waiting for the other to relent.

Finally, Michael broke the silence, huffing out an angry breath. “Fucking fine, Lindsay! That goddamn asshole risked his life for me! Obviously I don’t want to fucking push him into hating me!”

Lindsay felt some things slide into place as soon as he shouted it.

“Oh Michael, that’s what you’re worried about? He wanted to save you, I don’t think he would hate you if you tried to find out why...” She wrapped her arms around him to try to comfort him, and he didn’t stop her.

“Like, I know he was fucking stupid and it was pointless literally a second after he did it, but I just can’t forget what he was trying to do. So if we’re going to find out what he’s thinking, I want him to just tell us when he wants to, you know? Because he trusts us and shit. I don’t know.” He looked up and shrugged, and Lindsay kissed his cheek. She wanted to kiss all of his insecurities away, but this was the best she could do.

“...Yeah, I get what you’re saying. And I get what you mean by the right way now.” She lightly nuzzled his neck with her head, and she could feel him fighting back a smile.

“I guess we’ll figure something out. But for now just… do what you did today, I guess? We’re friends, and it’s not like I want us to act differently or anything.”

“Got it.”

They would figure out what happened with Ryan during the heist, but there was no rush. Lindsay felt hopeful that one day Ryan would trust them enough to talk about something that obviously mattered to him. One day, hopefully she and Michael would understand why it mattered so much to them, too.

However, if she happened to egg him on here or there, she never claimed that she was the best at being patient.

Michael broke their emotional moment by awkwardly coughing into his sleeve. “A-Anyway, tomorrow the crew’s gonna meet up again. Should probably figure out what Geoff wants us to do.”

“Yup. Oh yeah! I picked up your phone for you.” Lindsay dug into her purse and pulled out the phone. Michael immediately grabbed it and starting looking through the messages he missed that day.

“Thanks, babe! I totally forgot.”

“Even after that note? Well, you and Gavin tend to do that,” she teased.

“Oh yeah, I guess Gavin’s up shit creek with that one. Maybe Geoff will be nice enough to bring him the phone?”

There was a moment of silence before the both of them said, “Nah.”

Michael rifled through his messages some more before frowning. “Huh.”

“What’s up?”

“He says that tomorrow we should bring a dump truck…”

\---

Geoff’s idea of fun in the city involved taking the most unusual vehicles and seeing what ridiculous stunts the crew could perform with them. Most people would probably ditch him and his ideas immediately, but Lindsay appreciated the style and finesse that went into making them. No other crew in the city tried to pull off shit like this, and that’s part of what made the Fake AH Crew the best damn crew in Los Santos.

Of course, there was the tedious setup period, which Lindsay could definitely do without.

“Goddamnit guys how long does it take to line up?” she shouted from her dump truck, drumming her fingers impatiently on the steering wheel.

“This has to be perfect!” Jack shouted back from the car behind her. “Just stay there and don’t move.”

“Not like I have anything better to do…” she muttered before pulling out her phone. The plan today was to have each car do a stunt jump into the bucket of the dump truck so that they ended up with a stack of cars inside the bucket. They cleared out an entire street so they could pull this off, and even got a pretty decent ramp for the jump. Geoff’s current title for this was “Dump Stack”, but it was a work in progress.

As she waited for the guys to finish setup, she rewatched Ryan’s shopping montage for the second time that morning. It was as silly and hilarious as she expected, and she high fived Ryan for a job well done as soon as she saw him. When Michael walked by, he grumbled about Ryan staring too long at his wife in the video. Lindsay could swear that Ryan’s ears turned a bit red from that.

She wasn’t sure how embarrassing Ryan fit into their plan of endearing themselves to him, but Michael usually teased Ryan anyway so she supposed it wasn’t out of the ordinary for them.

Finally, after several more minutes of waiting, Ray shouted from the end of the line of cars, “Okay, lined up from back here! Taking up the rear!”

“Whoa, Ray’s taking it up the rear!” Michael snickered.

“Yeah, that too.”

Lindsay smiled as everyone laughed. It felt good to have the crew back together like this. Felt like everything was back to normal. Except...

“Make sure you use some lube!” Ryan said.

“Yeah, whatever.” Ray’s tone was flat, and it was more than obvious that he had no interest in talking to Ryan. That was going to be a problem, one that Lindsay wasn’t sure could be fixed just by getting to the bottom of Ryan’s issues.

Geoff was also unhappy with Ryan. After a tense stare down that morning, Ryan refused to reveal anything about his recent behavior, even after Geoff exclaimed loudly how happy he was with the money he was able to get from the gold so far.

Lindsay sighed at the memory. She and Michael definitely had their work cut out for them.

After a beat of awkward silence, Geoff rolled his eyes and shouted from the front of Lindsay’s dump truck, “Okay guys! We’re all set! Three, two, one…”

However, before Geoff could say “go”, bullets whizzed by his head, causing him to scream and duck behind the dump truck. The drastic difference in mood nearly paralyzed Lindsay, but she didn’t stay alive in this business by staying frozen when something unexpected happened. She jumped out and joined Geoff behind the dump truck, pulling out her pistol. She looked to her side and saw that everyone had already left their cars, also pulling out their weapons of choice.

“Geoff!” Gavin whined from two cars over. “What the bloody hell is going on?”

“I dunno!” Geoff screeched, peeking over the front of the dump truck to see who was shooting them. “Does someone have a wanted level? _Ryan_?”

“Why do you always accuse me?” Ryan complained, loading a rocket launcher.

“Because it’s always you,” Jack said, and everyone immediately agreed.

“Not true! Sometimes it’s Gavin! And I don’t have the cops after me, I just checked!”

Lindsay pulled out her phone and checked the app that Geoff got some friends to whip up for them. It showed if the police were after them and how bad it was, and luckily she had no stars at the moment.

“Well, Gavin?” Geoff glared over at Gavin, who was fumbling around with his phone.

“Hang on, almost got it… Okay! And no you bloody tossers, I don’t have a wanted level either!”

“Huh?” That clearly threw Geoff off. “Then who the fuck’s attacking us?”

“Uh…” Michael looked nervous as he pulled out his machine gun from his car. “I don’t think these are the cops, guys.”

Lindsay peeked over the bucket of the dump truck to see what was going on. The people attacking certainly didn’t look like police, as they all had casual clothes on and some less than legal weapons at their disposal.

“A _gang_ attack?” Geoff’s voice cracked in shock. “Jack, I thought you said this area was our turf!”

“It is!” Jack sounded as confused as Geoff. “They must be looking for a fight!”

“Can’t we all just get along?” Ray sighed before he leaned over and sniped a person who getting a bit too close to their row of cars.

“Well, if it’s a fight they want…” Ryan said before lining up his rocket launcher at the main cluster of people.

“Just don’t blow up our cars on accident.” Geoff put his hand to his face in resignation, as if he already knew what would happen.

“Leave some for me, too!” Michael cackled as he readied his machine gun.

“Today’s murder happy day, I guess,” Lindsay shrugged as she started firing off some shots of her own.

She flinched instinctively as the low whistle of a rocket filled the air, and not a moment later the world shook as the gang across from them went up in flames. Michael sprayed his machine gun across the carnage, taking down anyone still moving around from Ryan’s rocket. Ray sniped the ones that Michael’s bullets missed. Gavin also took some shots, but more often than not ended up being completely wide. Lindsay, Geoff, and Jack took down any stragglers trying to flee.

Between all of them, eventually the chaos settled down, leaving only a wrecked gang behind.

“Did we get all of them?” Jack asked, daring to peek over his car for more than a second.

“There were probably some who ran early on,” Ryan commented, surveying the area. “But I don’t think they’ll be coming back now.”

“Alright, who were these fuckers?” Michael growled, hopping over the car and walking towards the corpses that littered the street. He flipped one of them over, trying to find evidence of who they belonged to. “We weren’t fucking bothering anyone, and they must be idiots to come to us.”

“Yeah, since when do gangs come attack _us_?” Lindsay wondered aloud. “Usually it’s the other way around.”

“I’ll look into it,” Jack promised. “These people don’t look like they’re from any major gang I’ve ever seen, though.”

“Maybe they wanted to prove themselves or something?” Gavin said. “Like, take out a gang to make their gang look better.”

“Fucking idiots,” Ray scoffed. “We’re just some losers who like doing stunts and impossible heists! What the fuck would that even prove?”

“Eh, we’ll figure it out,” Geoff’s waved off everyone’s concerns, seeming very calm about this unusual turn of events. “We survived, it’s in the past, blah blah blah. Let’s get back to what we were doing.”

“Uh, well, about that.” Ryan rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. “I kinda have a wanted level now.”

“Dammit Ryan!” Everyone shouted at him. He shrugged in response.

As everyone started doing some quick cleanup so they could get the hell out of there, Lindsay wondered why a gang would attack them from out of nowhere. It was definitely different, and she only hoped that it wouldn’t become a regular thing.

Otherwise it would be another thing she had to worry about.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really happy that I finished another chapter of this! It's been a month, but believe me when I say I'm going to work on this until it's done. Also, I updated the tags/description to more accurately reflect what this fic will be about. First chapter was mainly setup, and now we're in it for the long haul!
> 
> Feel free to leave comments! Or chat with me at my tumblr: ryanthehaywoodguy.tumblr.com. I'd like to know what you guys think! :)

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is my first work for the fandom, and my first fanfic in... years, I suppose. It's unbetad, so there may be some errors that I missed.
> 
> After watching Lindsay's Heist, I immediately started writing this. I have a soft spot for this OT3, and the entire end to that heist kinda screamed at me to write some sort of followup. I hope you enjoy it! Should be a fun ride.


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